Little Shop Around The Corner

One of the things you learn quickly living on a base is to avoid the commissary on Pay Day. Everyone shops like it is the last time the commissary will be open for a while. I typically am able to avoid the madness by putting off my shopping until later but today I needed to get some groceries since this was a three week long paycheck (I hate those). I was quickly upset by what I saw there.

I had heard that there had been a change in who deliveries the things to be sold in the commissary or the supplier had been changed. Not entirely sure which. Who ever they switched to has caused our prices to rise dramatically. Katniss’ litter use to $1.97. It is closer to $4. Her food had also risen in price. I decided against buying anything for since she still had some. I’m hoping the price will go down in a couple of days when everyone isn’t shopping in a herd.

I went over to the produce department to get some veggies to go with dinner. I was appalled at the prices. Almost $7 for a bunch of asparagus? $6 for a cauliflower the size of my palm that came from Japan??? How do they expect us to afford these prices? If we were in the states we would be a two income family. Here we are only a one income family. We are lucky that we don’t have children with these prices. I left there upset and without buying anything.

I went instead to a tiny little grocery store that Jeremy and I had found a few weeks back. I remembered that they had avocados for cheap when we went looking for Sakura Pepsi. It’s called Manso and is located next to Nafco and Seria. I was happy I went. They had many options of fresh meat, veggies and fruit for extremely low prices. I bought steaks, seasoned chicken, thick pork chops, and much more for about a weeks worth of dinners including fresh veggies. I also but things to make lunches and various fruits including pineapple. I bought more Japanese English Muffins. I love these for breakfast. They are twice the size of normal English Muffins. If you toast them once in the toaster the outside gets crispy but the inside stays so fluffy and light. If you toast it a second time, the inside becomes crispy too.

One of the things I was surprised about was that I found the apple juice and grape juice that Jeremy and I love to get from the 7 Day. Normally at the 7 Day it’s about $5 for a liter of juice. At Manso its ¥157 ($1.40). We won’t be buying them at the 7 Day anymore. I can’t believe the price difference.

After grabbing some of the juices, I headed to check out. I was standing in line for a few minutes messaging some friends when I noticed that there were several older Japanese ladies snickering and looking at me. I figured it was because I was the only American there so I just pretended to be involved in my phone. I heard Japanese to my right in a stage whisper so I looked up again. One of the Japanese ladies was waving at me and trying to get me to come over. Then she pointed behind her. I looked around and realized why they were laughing. I was standing in line with my push buggy but the line I was in was for people with hand baskets. I didn’t realize that Japanese separated their lines like that. I will pay more attention next I go shopping.

I will definitely be coming back to Manso. After all the groceries I bought I was surprised that it only cost ¥8,000 ($70)! That’s with me also buying a potted plant and bouquet of orchids too!!!

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2 thoughts on “Little Shop Around The Corner”

Good place to learn a bit more language. In my experience living in Italy years ago. You still avoid having to speak a lot of language shopping in a supermarket but you can still speak a bit of Japanese and they will get to know you. When you get more confident with your Japanese you can hit an outside market, assuming they have them. Hope your Japanese is going well. Louise

There are some semi outdoor shops near base but with the warmer weather coming, there will be a bunch of farmer markets popping up soon. I am working on learning Japanese more. There is a class every Tuesday evening that I will be attending as of next week.